Copenhagen Art Week 2016: Open Gestures

Once again Cph Art Week takes Copenhagen by storm when the fourth annual festival kicks off in late August. Art lovers can look forward to a week of special events, exhibitions, ART BAR and much more.

The city's exhibition spaces and museums join forces as Cph Art Week proudly presents ten days of the best of the current art scene in Copenhagen. True to tradition, Cph Art Week will provide Copenhageners, art lovers and culture fans alike with a massive dose of contemporary art served up in unusual and ambitious ways. Museums, galleries, art fairs and exhibition spaces come together to present a diverse range of exhibitions, debates, openings, artist talks, guided tours and many other activities, all under the theme of Open Gestures.

The week kicks off in style on Friday, August 26 with a special edition of SMK Fridays at the National Gallery of Denmark where this year's Cph Art Week theme Open Gestures will be revealed. The opening day also promises a mecca of contemporary art when several international art fairs open their doors - CHART at Kunsthal Charlottenborg, and CODE and Art Copenhagen at Bella Center with the new Selected & Code Art Fair.

The following nine days are packed with debates, openings, artist talks, guided tours and much more. The week reaches a climax with an alternative take on an art fair—Alt_Cph, which brings together the alternative art scene within Denmark and internationally at the Factory of Art and Design

Unique City Artists

The French art duo Nøne Futbal Club is invited as Cph Art Week's special City Artists to create a "place-specific" scene with unusual interventions in public spaces and participating venues. At Copenhagen Main Library the duo will present the piece Bird Thoughts—a spectacular birdcage with live birds.

The Dominican-American artist Isabel Lewis will create a special "occasion" for SMK Fridays at the National Gallery of Denmark. It features a performative celebration where all senses are put in play, and is initiated and controlled by the artist herself using dance, music, smell, furniture and plants to create a unique atmosphere.

And the art collective B-tours, known for their experimental art tours, will also be creating special trips during the week—for instance in the Sundholm area of Amager, along with the alternative art fair Alt_Cph.

After hours ART BAR

A new event this year is the ART BAR, which Cph Art Week hopes will be a meeting point for the art scene and the public over drinks and performances, music and more while reflecting on the day's art events. ART BAR will be held at Copenhagen's hottest new exhibition space Copenhagen Contemporary on Paper Island.

If you want to learn more about the latest trends in art then the art institution GL STRAND is the place to be. From August 30 to September 1 they will be hosting a number of discussions with leading Danish and international artists, curators and experts.

Art meets transport

The Open Gestures theme is also explored in the various infrastructural initiatives that Cph Art Week is reviving after last year's resounding success. Art meets transport when performances, projections, and assorted craziness and gestures are performed in the Copenhagen Metro and on board an art cruise on the city's canals. And you can look forward to a spectacular surprise in the square at Kongens Nytorv.

Open Gestures

Every year Cph Art Week picks a theme that reflects current trends in the art scene and society at large. This year's theme Open Gestures investigates the unique ability of art to engage, debate and emphasise itself as an open, welcoming and incomplete act that only has meaning once when it first meets its audience.